GRETTENBERG, Charles (died 1895)

GRETTENBRG

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 4/25/2010 at 18:05:35

#1 of 3 items:

OBITUARY: Charles Grettenberg

Chas. Grettenberg Killed

A Terrible Disaster at Butte, Montana,
in Which 100 Lose Their Lives.

A telegram from Butte, Montana, brought the sad news yesterday morning that Charles Grettenberg had been killed on Tuesday night by an explosion. From his brother, Howard, who was in Osage when the news was received we learn that Charlie had written them last week that he was getting along very nicely and recovering rapidly from a injury he had received some time in December. By falling from a building his head had been badly cut and his shoulder broken, so that he had been wearing a plaster paris case, but expected to take it off in a few days. The young man was a tinner by trade and the employee of the Butte Hardware Company.

Mr. Grettenberg was the son of Henry Grettenberg of Mitchell and a nephew of S. E. Grettenberg of this city. The remains will probably be sent to the home of this parents for burial, reaching there by Saturday. How the accident occurred was not mentioned in the message, but the associate press dispatches give the following particulars, declaring the catastrophe the worst of its kind in the history of the west:

Submitted by Marilyn O'Connor 2003
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#2:

BUTTE: Montana, January 15.-- A fire occured in the Butte Hardware Company's warehouse tonight in which powder was stored. The fire department was a work on the fire when an explosion took place killing a number of people.

While efforts were being made to remove the dead and wounded a second explosion occured. The entire fire department was wiped out, including the chief and all the horses. Three policeman are among the killed, who number at least seventy-five. Plate glass was broken all over the city, and the damage to property is enormous.

It is impossible to get details at present. All ambulances are rushing to and from the . . . . (rest missing)

Submitted by Marilyn O'Connor 2003

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#3:

NOTE: The death notice (Item #1) did not have a date. Item 2 provides the date, but no year.
The reference below provides the date and the year of the explosion.

"The great dynamite explosions at Butte, Montana, January 15, 1895" By John Francis Davies